TRABONELLA MINE
On the right bank of the Imera River, just 3 kilometres away from the station bearing the same name, there is one of the most important sulphur mines in the middle of Sicily, the mine of Trabonella, which represents the most complete and typical example of the Sicilian mining period, currently in the care of the Caltanissetta City Council. The sulphur mine’s activity was carried out between 1839 and 1979, when it was closed, except the systems of flotation, refinement and ventilation that worked until 1986. The history of Trabonella, however, is also marked by bereavement and struggle: indeed, the mine is woefully famous for the blast of firedamp gas in 1863 that caused the death of 82 men, marking one of the worst mine disasters in Sicily, the fire of 1867 that killed 42 miners and the deadly blast of firedamp in 1911, which started a fire that lasted 10 days, killed 40 workers and injured 16. Notwithstanding the fast policy of dismissal of the mining structures to introduce the various technical innovations and the ferocious export of the systems to get iron out of them, Trabonella still preserves today the less incomplete set of systems, machines and technological devices. Today, the area of archaeological interest is found in the two zones of Pozzo Luzzati, the old Trabonella, closer to the Imera River, and Pozzo d'Oro, which saw the first systems for vertical treatment to the finished product.
